Missing from the article — which is funny, considering it's written from the perspective of a university student — is how deliberate Sun’s academic strategy was. In 1998 they launched the "Authorized Academic Java Campus" program, licensing Java tech to universities and setting up official training centers. Even before that, they were offering Java tools free to schools for teaching and research.
Combined with a massive branding push — Sun doubled its ad spend from 1995 to 1997 — Java ended up everywhere in CS education. By the late ’90s, first-year courses using Java weren’t a coincidence; they were the result of a planned, top-down push.
Combined with a massive branding push — Sun doubled its ad spend from 1995 to 1997 — Java ended up everywhere in CS education. By the late ’90s, first-year courses using Java weren’t a coincidence; they were the result of a planned, top-down push.